An Unexpected Guest
by benaprilleslie
Summary: Harry is living his best life with Ginny and young son, James, when suddenly Dudley shows up on his doorstep. Follow their reunion story.
1. Chapter 1

"Harry!"

Harry jerked awake at the sound of his wife's voice. "Yeah, Gin?"

"Someone's at the door and I just got James into his bath! Could you get it, please?"

"Of course!" Harry leapt nimbly from his chair and started down the hall to the stairs. As he did so, he passed the half shut door to the bathroom, where his wife was giving his son a bath. He paused a moment in the doorway to watch them. He still couldn't quite believe his life was really this good. Ginny reached to flick a piece of her fiery mane that had fallen from its messy knot at the back of her head and caught her husband standing grinning at her. She grinned back at him and her son took advantage of his mother's temporary distraction and slammed his small fists down on the water with a surprising amount of force, generating a large wave of soapy bath water to slop straight to the edge of the tub and directly into his mother's unsuspecting face. She gasped in shock as the water hit her and her son let out a gleeful giggle, relishing the mischief he had caused. "JAMES! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU…." A damp and rather bedraggled looking Ginny stopped short in her scolding to whip around to face the retreating back of her chuckling husband. "Harry Potter you get back here! Stop encouraging your son to pull these tricks!"

"Sorry Hon, but someone's at the door. I mustn't keep them waiting!" Harry sang as he made his way down to the door. He heard his wife chuckle and sigh, "What are we going to do with you, you little troublemaker?" as she settled down to finish giving James his bath. Harry smiled contentedly, he never would have imagined, given how horribly the first ten years of his life had gone, that he could ever find himself living a life that made him this happy. And yet here he was.

Harry pulled open the door, expecting to see the red hair of one of his many in-laws. He gasped and took an involuntary step back.

"Hey there, Harry"

"Dudley?" Harry whispered, a look of bewilderment stamped on his face. "Wha… What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

Dudley gave Harry a sad smile. "I can hardly blame you for being shocked to see me. I wondered if you had a moment to talk. I… I need to tell you…" Dudley seemed to be struggling with his words,

"Need to tell me what?" Harry asked, confused.

"I need to tell you I'm sorry." Harry didn't think anything Dudley had to say would be more surprising than the mere act of finding him on his doorstep but he was wrong.

"What?" Harry asked. He knew that wasn't the proper response in this type of circumstance but there really was nothing else he could think to say. Dudley looked into his eyes and Harry paused, really looking at him for the first time. His looked thinner. He had changed his looks a lot. His features had lost their piggish quality. Especially his eyes. They were no longer beady and emotionless. No, now Harry could clearly read Dudley's emotions, they were so obviously displayed on his face they may as well have been on a billboard. Dudley's eyes held something Harry had only ever glimpsed in them for the slightest of seconds, on the day they said good bye, presumably forever. Harry saw shame. This more than anything confused Harry.

He stood for quite some time staring at his cousin. A gust of chill wind blowing in through the open door pulled him to his senses. "Oh. Well. Come in then. Would… Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Umm… sure. That'd be great thanks." Harry ushered him into the cozy study.

"I'll just be a moment. Make yourself comfortable." Harry left to make their tea. As he was fiddling around with the teapot, he heard his wife come down the stairs and into the little kitchen. "Who was at the door, dear?"

She walked up behind Harry and slipped her arms around his waist. "I've finally gotten James down for his nap. I think the fight he put up about being bathed quite wore him out." Her chuckle froze in her throat as Harry turned to face her. She leaned back to look up into his face, her hands resting comfortably on his arms. "Harry, what's the matter?"

"It's Dudley." He looked confusedly down at her. She looked back at him, equally confused.

"What?"

"Dudley. He… He came to visit me. He's waiting in the study for some tea" Harry gestured to the whistling tea pot. As he turned to lift it off the stove he felt his wife drop his arm and spin on her heel. He turned around to see her hair swishing angrily out of the door. He dropped the teapot back on the stove and raced after her. "Ginny! What are you doing?" He called across the entryway at her as she threw open the study door.

"I'm about to give this bloody git a piece of my mind! YOU!" She yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Dudley. "How dare you? How dare you treat Harry like filth for years and then just suddenly turn up for a cup of tea? What makes you think…." Harry rushed forward and wrapped his arms around his fuming wife. He wrestled her wand out of her outstretched hand and turned her to face him. "Gin," He looked down into her flushed face, "It's alright. Dudley came to apologize and I think we should hear him out."

"APOLOGIZE?! Harry he can't just apologize and expect it to wipe away years of abuse!"

"Ginny!" Harry turned her face to look at Dudley, who was slouched on the small couch, tears running down his face.

"She's right. She's right. I can never make it up to you. I wish with all my heart I could take it all back Harry. Everything. I knew it was wrong. Vernon, and Mum, they were just terrible to you. I was just a kid, but still I knew better. It doesn't excuse my actions but I hope it will help you forgive me. But she's right, Harry, I don't expect this to make it all better. I would understand if you threw me out right now. I just… I just needed you to know. I needed to do something to make up for all of it."

Harry's eyes shined with tears. Even Ginny's anger had dwindled, not fully burned out yet, but dwindled all the rose to go. "Please just… Just let me know… let me know if there is ever anything, anything at all, that I can ever do to try and make this up to you."

He bowed his head low and walked around the couple towards the door. Harry reached out and grabbed his arm. "There is something. If you really mean that?"

"Yes,. anything!" Dudley looked hopefully, and somewhat warily between Harry and Ginny's faces.

"You can join us for dinner." Harry broke into a grin. Dudley smiled so wide it looked like his face might split in two. His eyes filled with tears as he looked at his cousin. "Thank you." he whispered. And then Harry pulled him tightly into a hug.


	2. Chapter 2

They spent an enjoyable evening around the small kitchen table, just chatting and getting reacquainted. Harry was surprised to find Dudley to have developed a pleasant personality. Harry could hardly believe this jovial, considerate person in front of him could really be the boy who had once tried to lock him in a dumpster so the garbage men would take him away "with the rest of his kind." Even Ginny was eventually won remained somewhat cold towards Dudley for a good portion of the meal, until a sleepy James was heard calling to be brought down from his nap. Ginny went to fetch him and when he came back Harry introduced the small boy to Dudley. "Dudley this is my son James. James say hi."

The boy grinned from his perch on his mother's hip. "Hi!" He gave a wet grin and waved his chubby hand at Dudley.

"Hi there, little tyke. Well my aren't you a big fellow?" Dudley gave the small boy a cheery smile before turning to Harry. "He's the spitting image of you. How old is he?"

"James, why don't you show Dudley how old you are going to be in a couple of weeks?" Harry grinned at his son, who was bending backwards over his mother's arms so he could look at the room upside down. He appeared fascinated with this new view of the room and did not appear to have heard. Ginny swung him around to face Dudley and his father and James asked him again. "Four!" He chirped happily, wagging four chubby fingers at them.

"Four? My goodness aren't you the old boy!" Dudley chuckled at him.

"I'm not as old as you," a cheeky smile beaming out of his upside down face.

"James!" Ginny tried to scold but was too busy choking back a laugh. Harry and Dudley didn't even try. The kitchen rang with their laughter.

The small boy's cheery demeanor swept all of the chill from the room. After watching Dudley's jolly interactions with her mischievous son, Ginny found it difficult to hold on to her anger. The sight of James perched happily on Dudley's lap, telling him the harrowing story of how he had scraped his knee the day before caused the last of Ginny's resolve to melt away. She could not seem to reconcile the image she had of Dudley to this grinning man who sat listening to her son's incessant chatter.

The evening stretched on and James was sent to bed, not without protest. When Dudley finally rose to leave, they no longer felt like strangers. The Potter's were amazed though about how little Dudley had shared about his own life. When he was questioned about Vernon and Petunia, he evaded the question, making some remark about not seeing them much anymore, and then refusing to elaborate further on the subject. They had noticed a wedding ring on his finger, but he made minimal comments about her, seeming rather flustered by the questions. When he turned to say good bye and thank them for their forgiveness and hospitality, he surprised them again. "Look here, would you two do me a great favor?" He asked rather suddenly. Harry and Ginny shared a wary glance.

"Sure, Dudley. What is it?" Harry asked cautiously.

"I want you two to come and meet my wife. It was her that put me onto the idea of finally looking you up after all these years. I know she would love it if you could come to dinner some evening. If you want to that is. It really would mean a lot." Dudley looked suddenly nervous again.

"But of course we'll meet your wife! I would love to!" Harry smiled warmly at his cousin.

"Oh, that's wonderful! What about next Thursday? We live at 233 Wallace Way in Fenwell. My wife will be so pleased!"

"We wouldn't miss it!" Harry shook his hand good bye and Dudley turned to walk out the door. However, Ginny, who had been standing quietly with a thoughtful expression on her face, spoke up. "Dudley?" He stopped on their porch and looked questioningly at Ginny.

"Dudley… I don't suppose… I mean… Well, how did you come to find Harry? He's not exactly well known in the muggle world. It's not… It's not possible you've…?" Ginny trailed off and Harry looked at her with confusion and questioning all over his face as he tried to decipher her jumbled thought. Dudley, however, simply grinned at Harry, "You've got yourself a right smart cookie, don't ya?"

He chuckled and began walking away again. "Dudley?"

"Yeah?" He looked back at Ginny.

"What's her name? Your wife? What's her name?" Dudley gave her a cheeky smile as he opened his car door. "Cho Chang." He slammed his door shut and drove away, leaving a stunned Harry and a chuckling Ginny in his wake.


	3. Chapter 3

DING-DONG!

"I'll get it honey!" Dudley threw open the door, a broad smile on his face. "Welcome! Come in come in!"

Harry and Ginny smiled at his enthusiastic welcome as they stepped into the quaint cottage. "Good evening, Dudley. My, something certainly smells delicious!" Ginny cheerfully handed Dudley her jacket. He chuckled.

"My wife is a fine cook. I've never seen anything like it. Just you wait 'til you taste it." Dudley's voice was filled with obvious pride as he spoke of her. Ginny smiled. She had been hoping Dudley's evasiveness about his wife from their first meeting had been born purely from his discomfort at telling harry he was married to his old crush, a fact Ginny was betting Dudley was well aware of. Harry had expressed his concerns to her that the situation may be awkward. Ginny had assured him that there need be no awkwardness, but Harry had still seemed weird about the situation. After some pressing, he told her that he was mostly concerned she would find it awkward to hang out with someone he used to have feelings for. Ginny had burst out laughing immediately.

"Harry," She took his hands in hers and looked him in the eye, "Love, I am perfectly secure in your love for me. You had a crush on Cho close to ten years ago. We have a beautiful son we both adore, a lovely home, wonderful family, and most importantly, we love each other. There has never been a single moment in my life when I have doubted that. Even when you broke up with me to go hunting horcruxes, even then I knew. I knew in my heart things would work out. Harry, you love me, and I love you, more than I can express. No Cho Chang is going to make me doubt our love. Okay?"

And that had been the end of it. Harry was actually looking forward to this evening. And it turned out Ginny was right. There was zero awkwardness. Both couples were so obviously ecstatic in their relationships, there was no room to still harbor grudges or emotions towards what now were so obviously childish infatuations. In fact, they even managed to laugh at their disastrous date from fifth year. Harry howling when Cho weakly attempted to defend the gaudy decorations at Madam Puddifoot's. "They were cute!" She cried, laughing along with the rest.

"Cute? Dudley, listen to me mate, there were cupid. And they threw glitter down onto the happy couples. Ruined a perfectly good cup of coffee too." Dudley shook with laughter as his wife bristled in defense.

"Oh very well Harry, my choice of date spot may not have been great, but I have never known a boy to blunder so much on a date."

"That I believe!" Ginny laughed, nodding at Cho.

"Hey! Aren't you supposed to be defending me here, Gin?" Harry tweaked her hair as she reposed on the floor, leaning against his legs.

"I'm sorry, Harry, but you're a little hard to defend on this point. You wouldn't believe how he acted on our first real date after everything settled down."

"Oh not this again!" Harry cried as Cho perked up to hear the story and Dudley laughed uproariously at Harry's indignation.

"Ignore him and tell us the story, Gin!" Cho leaned forward in interest.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well you see, Harry and I dated for a bit before the war, as you know, but then he and Hermione and my brother went off on the task Dumbledore had left them. Harry was concerned for me, because of the dangers to anyone associating with him at that time and because of the dangers he faced. So the bloody noble git breaks up with me so as not to hurt me. And yes I understand and appreciate why you did it, dear, but I must admit, I was not pleased at the time. Well anyway, when everything settled down after the Battle, Harry came to talk to me. We both still had a year of school left, but Harry was going straight into the Aurors department. And I must admit, when I heard that, I was rather scared that Harry would move on without me. But then he turned up on our doorstep right before the start of school. He had me and Hermione's Hogwarts letters from Mcgonogall. Oh my, I really thought Hermione might pee herself when you told her Hogwarts had been restored so quickly! Do you remember that Harry?"

"I do," Harry smiled down at his wife, playing with a piece of her hair as she talked.

"Well anyway, he barely even acknowledged me. Not that Mum really gave him much of a chance. As soon as he walked through the door she wrapped him in a bone crushing hug and it took a quidditch team's worth of unsticking spells to get her to let him loose. But he was at the Burrow for a good hour or more without any attempt to speak with me so I had pretty much given up hope. I went up to my room to get myself under control. I'm not known for keeping a level head when I'm angry," she explained to Dudley. "But Harry eventually came to talk to me and he was a mess. You would have thought I was Voldemort himself the way he acted."

"Hey now! If you'll remember it turned out I had a pretty good reason to be scared!" Harry interjected. Ginny waved her hand at him to quiet down.

"Shush we're getting there. Anyway I didn't say anything to him, I just watched him fumble his way through asking me if I would like to accompany him to Diagon Alley to pick up my school supplies. I coldly agreed to go and we flooed there. We walked around collecting the stuff on my list and Harry was getting more and more nervous as we went on. He really was a wreck. He knocked over an entire display of books at Flurrish and Blotts." Ginny and the other couple all laughed, but Harry spluttered indignantly.

"Well I had a bloody right to be nervous. She was barely speaking a word to me. I knew her well enough to know that meant I was in some serious trouble, and the longer it brewed the worse I was in for it! You'd have been terrified too if you'd been in my place!"

Ginny laughed at Harry. "Haha, oh it is true. I was so angry with him."

"Why?" Cho asked confusedly.

"Well, you see, when Harry and i broke up, there was sort of an unspoken agreement that we weren't really over. And I still loved him. I spent an entire year, wondering where he was and if he was safe. And then he finally shows back up in my life, with only enough time to give me a hurried hello and then all hell breaks loose. And the next thing I know he has gone off to offer himself up as a sacrifice to Voldemort without even saying goodbye to me. I know now he was just doing it to try and protect me, but I was hurt at the time. And then even after the battle, I wanted to be with him and help each other through the trauma but he never showed, and once again, I had no idea where he was." She looked up at her husband sadly. "So yeah, I was angry. And poor Harry was terrified. He wanted to make everything up to me and give me a perfect date. He tried so hard. It was just too much. He started by making us a reservation at a restaurant in Diagon Alley. It was new at the time and quickly went out of business, but it had advertised itself to offer a romantic evening for couples. I think I probably have your disastrous date to thank for that." She winked at Cho who laughed.

"So we go in and sit down, and if you think Madam Puddifoot's was ridiculous, you should have seen this place. It really wasn't my scene and it certainly wasn't Harry's but it was his best attempt at a romantic gesture so I cut him a little slack. Harry sat there, trying to make light conversation, but instead of talking about things we both liked like quidditch, he starts asking me about what clothes I've purchased for the new school year." Cho gasped.

"He asked YOU that? Harry!" She shook her head at his foolishness.

"Well I'm not completely to blame!" Harry defended himself, "Ron told me to."

"Well then you are to blame," Ginny laughed, "No one in their right mind would take relationship advice from Ron."

They all laughed. It was perfectly true. Ron's poor relationship skills were a well known fact.

"Anyway he carried on like that for a while, and I was getting increasingly frustrated with him for not talking to me about something that actually mattered, like where the bloody hell he had been. The tipping point came when the performers took the stage."

"Performers?" Dudley asked.

"Oh yes there was live entertainment. Didn't I mention that? Well anyway they start to put on this skit. It was a terrible skit. All about this poor girl who was living a terrible life, until this rich man meets her and she falls deeply in love with him. Throughout the entire performance the girl has no backbone. She 'doesn't deserve' the man so she completely changes everything about herself so she appears more fashionable. She quits school so she can spend more time with him. And they eventually get married and she bows down to every will and whim of her husband's because he is so amazing to have saved her from poverty. And they live happily ever after. I was fuming. I looked around at all of the couples and saw all of the women staring at their significant others with great gooey eyes and it made me sick. Well poor Harry, I was making him really nervous now but he had been a little too nervous to pay any attention to the play so he had no idea what was causing such fury in me. In a desperate attempt to make conversation, he commented on what an excellent play that had been. I lost it. I stood and screamed at him for considering such trash as good and if he wanted a woman like that he would have to look somewhere else and I stormed out of the restaurant, leaving Harry in a daze. I flooed home and locked myself in my room. I fumed and raged. Poor Arnold was cowering in the back of his cage. I had heard Harry come home after a while, but I was ignoring him. Eventually I got fed up and decided I was being ridiculous. I had grown up with enough boys to know they were a lot of times too stupid to tell you what you really wanted to know, so I stormed down to the kitchen where Harry was sitting talking to Molly and Ron. I grabbed his arm and drug him from the table, out the door."

"And then she let me have it," Harry interjected, "Everything she was mad at me for was laid out on the table. I don't think I've ever been so scared before in my life."

"Well I would be mad too. I can't believe you ignored her the whole summer." Cho said.

"I know. I was a right git. But I thought it was best at the time. I assumed she would want space to grieve after the war. It didn't occur to me that she might want some support while she grieved." Harry looked at Ginny sadly, obviously regretting his choice.

"Well he explained and I forgave and here we are today. Happy as ever! Now what about you two?" Ginny said, quickly changing the subject. It pained her to see Harry so regretful.

Dudley laughed. "Well now that's quite the story."

"Well we've just bored you with ours, it's our turn to hear a story." Ginny said settling back against Harry's knees, getting comfortable.


End file.
